Career:
Worked on an internship at Chanticleer Films and became a post-prod coordinator.
'My first job as a cinematographer was shooting karaoke's. I had a friend at
Chanticleer who wanted to be an actor, and his brother wanted to be a director.
We'd shoot six karaoke's over a weekend. They would edit and put them on laser
discs so that people could sing to them. At that point, I was more interested in
shooting music videos than features. It was the beginning of the electronic age
in post-production, and I didn't think that feature films were going to allow
the opportunity to really explore that. I didn't want to miss out on the
beginning of a new technology. Finally, through a friend, I got an opportunity
to shoot a music video for a rapper named E40, and the rest is history.'
[From KODAK website.]

Matthew Libatique: 'For me, the photography in music videos is driven by the
tempo of the music and certain instruments. I still hold out hope that in
today's pop climate, music videos have the potential to be an art. There are
some directors and cinematographers who constantly strive for that. I don't like
to sit around between pictures, so videos provide an opportunity for me to
practice, not unlike a musician. It gives me the ability to constantly work on
my craft and apply techniques of cinematography.' [From KODAK website.]

The Fighter [Darren Aronofsky] announced in 2007 (not to be confused
with Aronofsky's 'The Wrestler'); scheduled
to start filming in October 2008; dir in 2009 by David O. Russell and ph by Hoyte
van Hoytema